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Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
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C
Committee and Staff Biographies

COMMITTEE

Karen A. Bjorndal (Chair) is a professor of biology and the director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She received a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Florida. Dr. Bjorndal served as the chair of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature for 12 years. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Bahamas National Trust and served as president of the Comparative Nutrition Society. Her research includes sea turtle demographics, feeding ecology, growth rates, and nutrition. Dr. Bjorndal was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Sea Turtle Conservation, which issued Decline of the Sea Turtles: Causes and Prevention in 1990.


Brian W. Bowen is an associate researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, part of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He received a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Georgia in 1992. Dr. Bowen’s research focuses on the phylogeography and conservation genetics of marine vertebrates. His research program is designed to serve conservation goals by illuminating the evolutionary processes that generate biodiversity. Dr. Bowen is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Genetic Association, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the Society for the Study of Evolution. He is an author of the textbook Diversity of Fishes, Second Edition. He has held many editorial positions and is now an associate editor of the Journal

Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
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of Heredity and a member of the Editorial Review Board of Molecular Ecology.


Milani Chaloupka runs Ecological Modeling Services Pty Ltd., an international research company that provides statistical and mathematical consulting on ecological and economic issues for a wide array of groups, including industry, government, academe, and nongovernmental organizations. Dr. Chaloupka has a Ph.D. in marine ecology from the University of Queensland in Australia. His expertise is in statistical and mathematical modeling of complex ecological systems, including the development of interactive stochastic computer simulations of endangered-species population dynamics. He is the chair of the Sea Turtle Advisory Committee of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, chair of the Marine Turtle Red List Authority, and vice-chair of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group.


Larry B. Crowder is a professor of marine ecology at the Nicholas School for the Environment of Duke University. He completed his doctoral studies in zoology at Michigan State University. Dr. Crowder’s research centers on predation and food-web interactions, mechanisms underlying recruitment variation in fish, and population modeling in conservation biology. Dr. Crowder is currently engaged in more extensive programs in marine conservation, including endangered species and fishery conflicts, especially bycatch in fishing gear. Dr. Crowder is a former member of the Ocean Studies Board and has served on several National Research Council committees.


Selina S. Heppell is an associate professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. She earned a Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University. Dr. Heppell’s research focuses on sea turtles, sharks, sturgeon, and U.S. west coast rockfish, primarily using computer models and simulations to understand how populations respond to human activities and to guide research and management policy toward their recovery. She was an Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellow in 2006.


Cynthia M. Jones is a professor, an eminent scholar, and the director of the Center for Quantitative Fisheries Ecology at Old Dominion University. She received a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Jones is a recognized expert in fishery ecology and population dynamics, and her recent research has explored such topics as elemental analysis of adult and juvenile fish to investigate natal homing and connectivity in a marine fish metapopulation. She has served on the Ocean Studies Board and several National Research Council committees.

Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×

Molly E. Lutcavage is a research professor and the director of the Large Pelagics Research Center in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Lutcavage received her M.S. from Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary and her Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University of Miami. Her research emphasizes population biology, physiological ecology, and conservation of large pelagic species, particularly tunas, billfish and sea turtles. With her colleagues, Dr. Lutcavage helped to develop methods of electronic tagging and tracking of large marine animals. Her current interests include development of fishery-independent detection and assessment methods for large pelagic species and cooperative research approaches for fisheries.


Andrew R. Solow is a senior scientist and the director of the Marine Policy Center of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research is in environmental and ecological statistics. Dr. Solow has served on several National Research Council committees.


Blair E. Witherington is a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, where he has worked since 1992 on sea-turtle biology and conservation. Dr. Witherington received a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Zoology of the University of Florida, serves as a Fulbright senior specialist in biology, has served as president of the 20th International Sea Turtle Symposium, and is a member of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vice-chair of the Northwest Atlantic region.

STAFF

Jodi Bostrom is an associate program officer with the Ocean Studies Board. She earned a B.S. in zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in environmental science from American University. Since starting with the Ocean Studies Board in May 1999, Ms. Bostrom has worked on several studies pertaining to coastal restoration, fishery policy, marine mammals and noise, nutrient over-enrichment, ocean exploration, capacity building for oceans and coasts, land-based marine debris, and best practices for shellfish aquaculture.


Susan Park (until December 2009) was a senior program officer with the Ocean Studies Board until the end of 2009. She received her Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Delaware in 2004. Dr. Park was

Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×

a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Graduate Policy Fellow with the Ocean Studies Board in 2002 and joined the staff in 2006. She worked on several reports, including Nonnative Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, Review of Recreational Fisheries Survey Methods, Dynamic Changes in Marine Ecosystems, A Review of the Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy, and Tackling Marine Debris in the 21st Century. Before joining the Ocean Studies Board, she worked on aquatic invasive-species management with the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and the Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel. She is now the assistant director for research at Virginia Sea Grant.


David Policansky has a B.A. in biology from Stanford University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Oregon. He has taught introductory biology, genetics, ichthyology, evolution, ecology, and graduate seminars. He is a scholar with the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, where he directs studies on applied ecology and natural-resource management. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America and the American Fisheries Society and chairs the advisory council for the University of Alaska’s School of Fisheries. He was a 2001 Harriman Scholar on the retracing of the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition. His interests include genetics; evolution; ecology, including the effects of fishing on fish populations; ecological risk assessment; natural-resource management; and how science is used in informing policy. He has directed more than 30 projects at the National Research Council on natural resources and ecological risk assessment, including reports on the Endangered Species Act; on salmon in the Pacific Northwest, Maine, and Alaska; on wetlands delineation; on enhancing water supplies in the Middle East; on cumulative environmental effects of oil and gas activities on Alaska’s North Slope; on ecological indicators; on environmental effects of wind-energy projects; and on ecosystem-based approaches to the management of marine fisheries. He has published about 35 papers, book chapters, and book reviews, most recently on fisheries, the role of science in decision making, and common-property resources.


Jeremy Justice is a senior program assistant with the Ocean Studies Board. He earned a B.A. in international and area studies from the University of Oklahoma in 2008. Since joining the staff in October 2008, Mr. Justice has worked on Science at Sea: Meeting Future Oceanographic Goals with a Robust Academic Research Fleet and Ecosystem Concepts for Sustainable Bivalve Mariculture, in addition to this report.

Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×
Page 159
Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×
Page 160
Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×
Page 161
Suggested Citation:"C Committee and Staff Biographies." National Research Council. 2010. Assessment of Sea-Turtle Status and Trends: Integrating Demography and Abundance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12889.
×
Page 162
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All six species of sea turtles found in U.S. waters are listed as endangered or threatened, but the exact population sizes of these species are unknown due to a lack of key information regarding birth and survival rates. The U.S. Endangered Species Act prohibits the hunting of sea turtles and reduces incidental losses from activities such as shrimp trawling and development on beaches used for nesting. However, current monitoring does not provide enough information on sea turtle populations to evaluate the effectiveness of these protective measures.

Sea Turtle Status and Trends reviews current methods for assessing sea turtle populations and finds that although counts of sea turtles are essential, more detailed information on sea turtle biology, such as survival rates and breeding patterns, is needed to predict and understand changes in populations in order to develop successful management and conservation plans.

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